According to estimated numbers gathered by the Office of Research and Development, Tamkang’s faculty members and staff proposed 429 research projects to the National Science Council (NSC) in the academic year of 2005. The result of approval by NSC will be released from June to August.

Among those research projects, 138 proposals were submitted by 133 assistant professors or above from the College of Engineering and the application rate exceeded 100% (104%), which tops other faculties, as two or three research projects come from the same professor. The second one in the ranking is the College of Sciences, followed by the College of Management and College of Education which both hit the number three in the ranking.

All colleges put in great efforts in proposing research projects. The application rate from 16 faculties at TKU is up to 100% or above. Only four teachers in the Graduate Institute of Life Sciences have proposed 10 research projects and the application rate is 250% which is the top one among all departments and institutes. The total number of the research projects from each department is in the following:

- 23 research projects are from the Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering. The application rate is 153%.

- 30 research projects are from the Department of Electrical Engineering. The application rate is 150%.

- 13 research projects are from the Department of Transportation Management. The application rate is 130%.

-14 research projects are from the Department of Management Science and Decision Making. The application rate is 127%.

- 7 research projects are from the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies. The application rate is 117%.

- 20 research projects are from the Department of Information Management. The application rate is 111%.

-12 research projects from the Department of Education Technology. The application rate is 109%.

-24 research projects from the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering. The application rate is 109%.

-18 research projects from the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. The application rate is 106%.

- The application rate is up to 100% in the following departments and institutes: the Graduate Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, the Graduate Institute of Educational Psychology Counseling, the Graduate Institute of Educational Policy and Leadership, the Department of Aerospace Engineering, the Department of Industrial Economy and the Department of Global Politics and Economics.

Chen Kan-nan, the Director of Office of Research and Development understands that to teach and do research simultaneously is definitely not an easy task, yet it is vital for scholars to be involved in state-of-the-art research in order to keep up with or be ahead of the world. To be consistent with the international-oriented policy at TKU, Director Chen once again reminds everyone concerned to spare some time for research so as to apply for more budgets to conduct meaningful studies. (~ Ying-hsueh Hu )